Talking Alarm Clock

If you already have a previous version of Talking Alarm Clock installed, you can upgrade to the latest version by simply downloading and installing it. The installer will automatically recognize it as an upgrade.

If you've already installed Talking Alarm Clock 2.0 Preview, you'll need to remove it before installing this version. The Talking Alarm Clock 2.0 setup will do this automatically.

Compatibility

You can't have more than one version of Talking Alarm Clock installed at the same time, and when you install version 2.0 it will replace any previous versions installed on your machine.

If you're using an earlier version than 1.5, you should upgrade to version 1.5 before installing version 2.0.

Talking Alarm Clock 2.0 is mostly "downward compatible" with previous versions. You can uninstall version 2.0 and reinstall version 1.5 without losing your alarms. However, any alarm that has been updated with version 2.0 will lose its shortcuts when used with a previous version.

On Windows^® Vista or Windows^® 7, you can choose a compatibility setting using the Talking Alarm Clock Support program. If you choose to stay compatible with the Windows^® XP version, you'll be able to copy alarms between Windows^® XP machines and Windows^® Vista or Windows^® 7 machines, and you'll stay compatible with version 1.5. However, you'll need administrative privileges to use the application.

To set the Windows^® XP compatibility, you must run the Talking Alarm Clock Support program "as administrator".

Microsoft^® Agent

If you're using Windows^® 7 the Microsoft^® Agent component will likely not be installed. Microsoft^® Agent is only required if you want your alarms to be accompanied by an animated character. You can always use Microsoft^® Speech to get your alarms to talk.

If you're not sure if Microsoft^® Agent or Double Agent is installed on your system:

Open the Alarm Clock.
Choose Microsoft^® Agent Status from the View menu.
You'll see a window that tells you if Microsoft^® Agent or Double Agent is installed. You can use the buttons on this window to configure them.

You can use either Microsoft^® Agent or Double Agent with Talking Alarm Clock. If Microsoft^® Agent isn't installed on your computer, Talking Alarm Clock setup will automatically try to install Double Agent. If you want to install Microsoft^® Agent, go to the Microsoft^® Agent Download Reference page for more details.

Also, the Microsoft^® Agent installation on Windows^® Vista and Windows^® 7 may not include all of the basic characters. The Talking Alarm Clock setup will download and install any missing characters.

Text-to-Speech

For Microsoft^® Agent characters to talk, a text-to-speech engine must be available.

On Windows^® XP, Microsoft^® SAPI4 (Speech Application Programming Interface version 4) is required for Agent characters to speak.

For Windows^® Vista and Windows^® 7, Microsoft^® Agent will use the speech engine that comes with Windows^® (SAPI5). However, if you want to use any of the voices that were available for SAPI4, you'll need to install both SAPI4 and the speech engines for those voices.

The Talking Alarm Clock setup includes options for installing SAPI4 and the SAPI4 voices that used to be included with Microsoft^® Agent. To use these options, choose the custom setup type.

Download

Run the Talking Alarm Clock setup (click on the link and pick Run or Open). The setup program will download and open the installation package. Then just follow the installation instructions.

Once Talking Alarm Clock has been installed, look for Talking Alarm Clock in the Programs Menu. You should also see an icon that looks like this

in the Windows^® system tray. Right click on the icon to add a new alarm or show the alarm clock.

To be notified about Talking Alarm Clock updates, subscribe to our

software update feed.

If you have problems with the setup program, or you want to install Talking Alarm Clock on a computer without an Internet connection, please choose one of the following download and installation options:

Download the Talking Alarm Clock version 2.0 installation package for Windows^® XP. Simply download and open the installation package, then follow the installation instructions. Refer to the installation notes for further information.
Download the Talking Alarm Clock version 2.0 installation package for the 32-bit version of Windows^® Vista or Windows^® 7.
Download the Talking Alarm Clock version 2.0 installation package for the 64-bit version of Windows^® Vista or Windows^® 7.